Method of producing decorative surfaces on metal



y 1935- c. HONEGGER 2,009,804'

METHOD OF PRODUCING DECORATIVE SURFACES ON METAL Filed Aug. 14, 1934 nQvEN'roR ATTORNEY S Patented July 30, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,009,804 METHOD OF PRODUCING DECORATIVE SURFACES ON MET Corinne Honegger, Forest Hills, N. Y.' Application August 14, 1984, Serial No. 739,809 2 Claims.- (01. 4118) be placed in or on a suitable holder or clamp and rotated or spun while the decorative surfacing is being applied.

As a feature of the invention, I produce the desired surface effects on metal with a hard metal rotary tool or marking wheel mounted on a handle shaft and adapted to be held by hand against the surface of the spinning metallic article with sufiicient pressure 50 that the tool is rotated by the article. 7 v

Numerous types of novel surface effects may be obtained by the use of a hard metal marking wheel journaled on a suitable shaft and having its peripheral edges notched at intervals and with the peripheral surface of the tool between such notches roughened or having a raised pattern thereon, or otherwise treated so that it will make an impression on the metal article to be decorated. I I I Factors whichcontribute to determining the nature of the surface design are first, the design on the surface of the marking wheel; secondly, the nature and spacing of the radial notches in the periphery of thewheel; thirdly, the angle at which the wheel is held against the surface being decorated; fourthly, the manual pressure which is applied to the 'wheel; fifthly, the direction in which the wheel is drawn over the surface being decorated; and sixthly, the wheel is drawn or slid over such surface. It is desirable that the spinning metallic article to be decorated be rotated at a comparatively rapid rate inorder that the decoration may be effected expeditiously and the same surface area of the article may be brought into'rolling and/or sliding contact a number of times with the wheel as the wheel is moved over the surface which is being operated upon. 1

The tool is of extremely simple, practical, rugged, durable construction and the process can quickly be learned by an unskilled workman, and any marking wheel having a roughened periphery and radially notched edges, can by various manipulations be caused to producea wide variation of surface designs on the metal.

The invention may be more fully understood from the following description in connection with the accompanying drawing wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view showing a generally spherical metallic article having a stippled effect produced thereon by my improved tool,

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view on the line 2'2 of Fig.1,

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view similar to Fig. 1 but showing the axis of rotation of the marking wheel disposed at a different angle to produce a the rapidity with which I irregularly spaced about the wheel in accordance with the surfacing effect spiral effect by contact of the surface with the notches in the wheel,

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view partly in section and partly in elevation taken approximately on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3, and

Fig. 5 is a side elevational view of the mark-- ing wheel. 7

In the drawing I have used the reference numeral II] to designate a suitable rotary holder such as a circular form having spherical curved edges ll over which the open end of a partially spherical metal article l2 may be applied by simply frictionally fitting the open end of this article over the holder H). A shaft l3 rotated from any suitable source of power carries this holder.

The marking tool includes a handle shaft designated generally at M and a marking wheel or disk I5 carried by the shaft l4 between the ends of the latter and mounted on ball bearings IS. The. inner race I! of the ball bearing is preferably secured upon the reduced end I8 of one section l -la of the shaft M. A complementary axially aligned shaft section Mb is provided with a threaded socket l9 therein into which the threaded extremity 20 of the reduced shaft section l8 may be screwed. The extension 20 is screwed home to an extent limited by the ball race l'l. surface 2| of the shaft section Mb and between the shoulder 22 of the shaft section I la which is defined by the reduced shaft section 18.

The two shaft sections Ma and Mb afford convenient handlesfor holding the rotary marking wheel I 5 against the surface of the article to be decorated. The wheel is shownwith a peripheral surface having a criss-cross design "23 thereon although the surface design on the periphery of the wheel may be convenientlyyaried in accordripheral surface of the wheel and the peripheral surface is intersected by radial notches grooves 25, these grooves preferably extending at least-to a depth corresponding to the depth of the bevel. These grooves may be regularly or periphery of the which it is desired to produce Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate the marking wheel and the rotary article 12 which results in fiat rolling contact of the peripheral wheel surface with the surface being decorated. Two factors are necessary to obtain this flat rolling contact. First the axis of rotation of the marking wheel and the axis of rotation of the article must lie in a and secondly, the plane of the wheel must be normal to the surface being marked. With'the on the article. a relationship between common plane,

wheel thus held, the pattern on the wheel surface will produce a stippled or hammered effect and the notches or edges of the wheel have no scraping or grooving effect although they will supplement the roughened wheel surface by an intermittent hammering action to produce a modification of the pattern borne by the wheel surface between the notches.

If the plane of the wheel is now changed to a plane which is not normal to the surface of the rotating article, and the axis of rotation of the wheel and the axis of rotation of the article still maintained in the same plane, the wheel will have edge rolling contact with the article to be decorated but there will still be no scraping action of the notches across the surface.

' In Figs. land 2 the plane of the wheel is nor mal to the surface being operated upon and the two axes of rotation lie in a common plane. To get the edge rolling contact it would be merely necessary to tilt the wheel slightly to the right or left from the position illustrated in Fig. 2.

Figs. 3 and 4 illustrate a different relationship between the surface and wheel, in which the peripheral notches of the wheel come into play to scratch or groove the surface of the article. It will be observed from these two views that the plane of the wheel is still normal'to the plane of the surface being operated upon but that the axis of rotation of the wheel and the axis of retation of the article are no longer in the same plane. The result is that there is no longer mere flat rolling contact between the wheel and the.

surface but that in addition to the rolling contact there is a sliding contact, permitting the corners of the notches in the wheel to scrape the surface to be decorated.

The various methods by which the tool might be manipulated over the surface of the article, are too numerous to attempt to describe. It will be apparent however that spiral effects i lay be produced by rapidly drawing the tool over the surface of the article from the center toward the outer edge of the latter, or in the case of cylindrical articles, from one end toward the other of the cylindrical articles, and that an infinite variety of spiral and other designs may be produced.

Due to the pattern on the surface of the wheel and the groove in the wheel, the decorative surface produced on the article may be the combined result of an embossing, and engraying operation.

As above suggested there are numerous factors which contribute to the final surface effect produced, such for instance as the angle of the plane of the wheel with respect to the surface being decorated; the angular relationship between the two axes of rotation; the pressure applied to the wheel; the time during which the wheel is permitted to contactwith a single circular area of the article; the direction of movement of the wheel across or along the surface; and the rapidity of such movement. To these may be added the nature of the peripheral pattern on the wheel; the regular or irregular spacing of the notches; the angle of bevel at the edge of the wheel; the nature of the metal being worked upon; and the frequency with which the wheel is lifted off and replaced upon the surface.

It will be apparent from the drawings that Fig. l illustrates virtually a simple stipple obtained by fiat rolling contact by the surface of the marking wheel and the surface to be decorated, while Fig.

3 shows a spiral grooving effect obtained by disposing the axis of rotation of the wheel at a dif ferent angle and drawing the wheel rather rapidly from the center of the article toward the outer edge while maintaining the two rotary elements in contact.

Any attempt to produce generally similar surface effects by the use of an emery wheel have proven unsatisfactory because while the emery wheel will scratch the surface of the metal, the emery wheel does not wear down evenly but certain harder portions of the wheel produce deep grooves in the metallic surface which appear as unsightly scratches in the completed article. Furthermore, with the device of the present vention the grooves or notches in the wheel provide accommodation and a way of escape for minute metallic fibres or slivers which may be removed from the surface of the article being decorated whereas in the case of an emery wheel or similar abrading instrumentality, such fibres would become embedded in the abrading or grinding tool with consequent scratching of the surface of the metal being worked upon.

It will of course be understood that in applying this method to the decoration of large sheets of material such as metal panels, the method will not be-carried out by hand but entirely by machine, the pressure of large marking rollers against the work and their angles with respect to the work'being regulated by suitable adjustments of the machine.

It will thus be seen that there is herein described a method and a tool in which the several features of the invention are embodied, and which method and tool in their action attain the various objects of the invention and are well suited to meet the requirements of practical use.

As many changes could be made in the above construction, and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A method of producing surface ornamentation on a metallic article, which consists in rotating the article on its axis, holding against the surface thereof a rotatable marking wheel, the wheel'being held at such an angle with respect to and at sufficient pressure against the surface to be marked that the wheel is driven by the article being marked during the marking operation, and drawing the wheel across the spinning surface of the article atsuch an angle and at such a speed with respect to the speed of spinning of the article that a spiral design is produced on the surface of the article.

2. A method of surfacing a metallic article to simulate compacted metal fibres, which consists in spinning the article, and drawing across the surface. thereof a marking wheel. having notched peripheral edges, the wheel being rotated by the article and disposed at such an angle with respect to the surface of the latter that the corners of the notches groove the surface.

CORINNE HONEGGER. 

